The Love That Is Parker Bowmen

23| Confrontation

Emily Rose

10:47 pm

There's this feeling.

It's the kind of feeling in which you can see the destruction in front of you, see it take its place, but you can't do anything to stop it.

All you can do is watch as the dots connect themselves and wait for the explosion of your life.

Numb.

Helpless.

Naive.

And then you think to yourself, "I could've stopped this. Realized it sooner." But the world doesn't work like that. The next thing you know, your world is crashing and there's nothing you can do.

Only watch, like the oblivious, but knowing idiot you are...

Why didn't you connect the dots, Emily? I thought you were smart.

Freezing air hits me; blowing the once certain person away like a shallow but frail, fallen leaf. Puffs of smoke fall from my lungs before appearing in the air before my eyes. Rain soaked clothes clasped onto trembling body like a second skin.

I peered down at my hands. The once beautiful fingernails were now torn; the tips, which at a time were perfectly crafted, now were jagged, sharp edges, causing the milky flesh around them to transform into red swollen mush. Small drops of blood dripped down from my fingertips.

I was destroyed...

I always think I've escaped, or that I can and when I do everything will be the same, back to the blunt innocence it once was. But that's just a pipe dream. For this has been a plan forged even before I found the clues.

I peer at the driver in front; a man whose face was as plump and round as a lumpy pillow. A mask of concern overtook him as he glanced from the windshield and rear view mirror. His thick glasses fell down to his nose as his eyes marked mine. "Are you okay, Miss?"

My mind shook as I lied and nodded to the man.

He cleared his throat, his thick beard brushed the top of his lip, "well then, where do you want to go, Miss?" He asked and I blanked.

Where was I to go?

I had no home, I left all of my friends, and the people who I trusted the most lied to me.

I had nothing. I was back to where I started 5 years ago...

Unshed tears stung my eyes as I told the man the only safe place I could think of.

*****

8:56 pm

As the color slipped back into his face, the corners of Tomas' mouth quirked up as the people he cared about the most surrounded him.

And ironically, I wasn't one of those people.

I stayed in the corner, my arms crossed around my chest. My mind continued to race as I thought about the things I knew and the things I didn't.

The pieces were coming together and the anxious look on Parker's face told me that. I was getting too close to the truth it seemed and he could sense it. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as he took a quick glance at me across the room.

I'm dangerous to him now. I want the truth, and I want it now, but I'm not so sure he's willing to give it.

Camara slid over to me before whispering. "Why aren't you over there?" She waved a quick hand over to the crowd of people and the smiling Tomas, whose face I couldn't help but feel a bit of anger for.